Following a job's progress in Burn by Zaweba without watching

Burning and checking a disc takes a while, and nobody wants to sit and stare at a progress bar. Burn by Zaweba lets you get on with something else and still know where a job has got to, and it tells you when it is done.

There are three parts to this: progress on the taskbar, progress on the tray icon, and a short chime with a notification at the end.

Progress where you can see it

Every job in Burn shows its progress on its taskbar button. While a disc is burning, the button fills as the job goes along, so a glance at the bottom of the screen tells you how far it has got, even with other windows in front.

The tray icon shows progress too. That is handy when the taskbar is crowded or hidden, or when you simply look to the corner of the screen out of habit.

The finish chime and notification

When a job finishes, Burn plays a short chime and shows a tray notification. The chime is enough to bring you back from another room, and the notification tells you the job has ended without you having to switch windows.

This matters most for long jobs: a backup across several discs, a disc being read to an image, or a burn followed by its check. You can set the job going and leave it.

Turning the sound off

Not everyone wants a chime, and Burn doesn't insist on one. In a quiet office, late at night or on a PC in a shared room, a sound can be unwelcome. In Settings, the option Play a sound when a job finishes turns the chime and the notification off together.

Progress on the taskbar and tray icon carries on either way, so you can still check on a job by looking. If you change your mind later, the same setting turns the chime and notification back on, and nothing else about how jobs run is affected.

Using it well

Leave the chime on for backups of several discs. Burn asks for each disc in turn, and hearing that a step has finished helps you be there for the next disc rather than leaving the drive waiting.

Watch the taskbar during a check after burning. Reading every file back takes a few minutes more, and seeing the progress keeps you from ejecting the disc too soon.

Pay attention to the notification, not only the sound. A finished job isn't always a successful one. Open Burn and read the result, especially for a backup or a check, before you put the disc away.

Signals alongside the other tools

These signals work alongside everything else Burn does. The Backup log records how each backup ended, the check after burning tells you whether every file is right, and the status bar shows which drive and disc are in use. The taskbar, the tray icon and the chime just make sure you aren't left wondering. With Burn by Zaweba, you can start a job, walk away and know when to come back.